Justin Raimondo
Justin Raimondo (born Dennis RaimondoBirthname mention on November 18, 1951http://www.joincalifornia.com/candidate/2787) is an American author and the editorial director of the website Antiwar.com. He describes himself as a "conservative-paleo-libertarian."Justin Raimondo, Commissar Frum: Former Presidential speechwriter smears antiwar conservatives, Antiwar.com, March 22, 2003. Background During his teens, Raimondo took a brief interest in the philosophy of Ayn Rand before joining Young Americans for Freedom. In the 1970s, he became active in the Libertarian Party. With Eric Garris, he organized a "Radical Caucus", which brought them to the attention of the libertarian theorist Murray Rothbard. In 1982, Raimondo ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives as a Libertarian, against Democratic incumbent Phillip Burton and Republican challenger Milton Marks. He received 14 percent of the vote. In 1983, after a schism in the party, Raimondo left the Libertarian Party and attempted to organize a libertarian faction in the Republican Party known as the Libertarian Republican Organizing Committee. After 1989, Raimondo again began working with Rothbard in the anti-war John Randolph Club. Though raised a Roman Catholic, Raimondo describes himself as "not a believer."Pope John Paul II: Man of the Year December 29, 2003 Raimondo's politics In the 1996 U.S. congressional elections, Raimondo ran as a Republican candidate in California's 8th district against Nancy Pelosi. While he championed conservative and libertarian causes in general, the main emphasis of his campaign was his opposition to the deployment of U.S. troops in the Balkans and, in particular, Pelosi's vote to that effect.Raimondo for Congress: Campaign News and Statements Raimondo received 25,739 votes http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1996/96Stat.htm#5 for 12.39 percent of the vote while Pelosi got 84.34 percent1996 U.S. congressional election information—results similar to other Republican candidacies against Pelosi (see: Electoral history of Nancy Pelosi). During the 1992, 1996, and 2000 presidential elections, Raimondo supported the campaigns of Pat Buchanan, both as a Republican and in the Reform Party. As he is openly gay, his support of the social conservative Buchanan attracted considerable attention.Pat Buchanan In 1995, during the Clinton administration's military interventions into the Bosnian war, Raimondo and Garris launched Antiwar.com to provide a platform for their opposition. The site has continued to publish on a daily basis. Raimondo has been a vocal critic of the invasion of Iraq and the ongoing occupation. In 2004, he supported Ralph Nader for President, and explained his reason for this in an article published in The American Conservative.Justin Raimondo: Old Right Nader In 2008, he has frequently written admiringly of Ron Paul's Presidential campaign, and has also expressed support for Dennis Kucinich — while being somewhat critical of both. He has also been critical of Barack Obama's Cabinet choices as President. Major ideas and recurring themes Several themes recur regularly in Raimondo's writing, mostly derived from his libertarian ideological roots. He strongly opposes the Israeli occupation of Palestine. He believes that initiatory war is wrong, immoral, and counterproductive, that a small group of neoconservatives in both major American political parties have been responsible for "lying us into war" repeatedly, and that the ideals of the Old Right conservative movement have been consistently sold out since around the time of the Vietnam War, when neoconservatives united with religious conservatives to pursue an expansive foreign policy, often in support of Israel. Long before John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt argued that Israel exerts a dominant force in the formulation of American foreign policy (see The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy), Raimondo was essentially saying the same thing.Israel Is the Problem, by Justin Raimondo Raimondo also believes the United States was led into World War II through lies by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and that the US provoked a war with Japan deliberately through economic sanctions.YASUKUNI BROUHAHA- by Justin Raimondo Raimondo's views have been compared by Christopher Hitchens to those of Charles Lindbergh, whom Raimondo describes as an "American hero sprung from the heartland."Smearing Fitzgerald- by Justin Raimondo However, it seems clear that Raimondo does not endorse Lindbergh's Des Moines speech in which the famous aviator decried Jewish influence on the media.Raimondo, Justin. Reclaiming the American Right, pages 106, 137, 227 Raimondo has also written repeatedly about the Israeli Art Student conspiracy and he has written that elements of Israeli intelligence operating in the U.S. had advance knowledge of the September 11, 2001 attacks.The Truth, At Last Raimondo is openly gay, but as a libertarian, he believes the government should refrain from adopting laws that would prohibit discrimination against gays. He also is against gay marriage, both mocking the idea that gays should adopt a heterosexual model of sexual and emotional relationships, and noting that as a libertarian he opposes "State incursion into such private matters."Justin Raimondo, Gay Marriage Sucks!, Taki's Magazine, July 2, 2008. He also has written that after years of persecution by the state gay rights activists want to "use the battering ram of government power" to actively intervene on behalf of homosexuals.Justin Raimondo, Gay Victimology and the Liberal Kulturkampf Bibliography In addition to his thrice-weekly column for antiwar.com, he is a regular contributor to The American Conservative and Chronicles magazine. Raimondo also writes two columns a month for Taki's Top Drawer. He is the author of several books: *''Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement'' (Center for Libertarian Studies, 1993), reissued in 2008 with new introduction by George W. Carey, by Intercollegiate Studies Institute ISBN 978-1933859606. *''Into the Bosnian Quagmire: The Case Against U.S. Intervention in the Balkans'' (AFPAC, 1996). *''An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard'', Prometheus Books, July 2000, ISBN 1-57392-809-7. *''The Terror Enigma: 9/11 And the Israeli Connection'', iUniverse, November 2003, ISBN 0-595-29682-3. References External links * Raimondo's Online Work at AntiWar.com * Raimondo's Online Work at TakiMag.com Category:1951 births Category:Living people Category:American anarchists Category:American anti-war activists Category:American bloggers Category:American columnists Category:American foreign policy writers Category:Paleolibertarians Category:American libertarians Category:American online publication editors Category:American political writers Category:Anarcho-capitalists Category:American atheists Category:Activists from the San Francisco Bay Area Category:California Republicans Category:LGBT writers from the United States Category:Libertarian theorists cs:Justin Raimondo de:Justin Raimondo dsb:Justin Raimondo es:Justin Raimondo fr:Justin Raimondo hsb:Justin Raimondo it:Justin Raimondo simple:Justin Raimondo